The Pitch: Through market research, the founders determined two things: People hate giving gift cards because they feel impersonal. Those same people, however, love getting gift cards because they can select the gift they really want. Jifiti has created an app that is designed to make everyone happy. It allows users to give a specific gift from a roster of retailers and then send it digitally; the recipient can choose to keep or to exchange the item — either through the app or in one of the retailer’s physical stores. The retailers integrated into Jifiti’s platform include: Gap, Barnes & Noble, Game Stop, Sephora and Old Navy.

How it Works: Users can browse a store’s inventory through the app, choose the item they want to give as a gift and pay for it. “Within seconds a note is sent by text, email or through Facebook to the recipient alerting them they have been sent a gift,” Mr. Martin said. The person receiving the gift “opens” a card that contains a personal note and sees a wrapped gift. With a click, it unwraps and a picture of the gift appears. When recipients click on “redeem this gift,” they see a gift card with a code on it that can be used to have that specific item shipped to them or to exchange it for something else. Givers can also walk into a participating retailer’s brick-and-mortar store and use the app to scan the item they want and complete the transaction.

Traction: Jifiti has more than 50 national retailers integrated into the app. “We have more demand from retailers than we can on-board,” Mr. Martin said. For a retailer, adopting Jifiti’s app requires no integration on their part. “They just sign up,” he said. “We’re already integrated with the third-party gift card issuers they use, so they just have to approve Jifiti to produce gift codes and give us product feed so they can exist inside our app.”

Challenges: The biggest challenge for Jifiti is trying to market its platform to two constituencies: retailers and consumers. “Most companies have to focus on one of those, but we have to do both,” Mr. Martin said. “As we grow relationships with retailers, they assist us with that, but there are costs in terms of personnel and focus. We have two different teams.” Another challenge facing the company is the enormously crowded market for apps. To stand out, Jifiti is leveraging its relationships with retailers and with investors, one of whom is Simon Malls, which advertises for Jifiti on Facebook and in its malls.

Financing: The company has raised $3 million in a first round of financing from investors like Simon Malls, which owns hundreds of shopping malls in the United States and abroad; Schottenstein Property Group, which owns American Eagle Outfitters and DSW among other brands; and Jesselson Capital Corporation, a private equity group. Mr. Martin said the company expected to raise another round of financing beginning in December.

Revenue: Jifiti is a commission-based platform and takes a cut of every sale made through its app. The amount of the commission depends on the industry, but is from 7 to 12 percent of the purchase price. The company just started generating revenue in October.

Mr. Martin and Mr. Weisband met after high school in Israel and then lost touch, but ran into each other years later, as entrepreneurs. Mr. Weisband asked Mr. Martin to meet him at a shopping mall to chat about a business idea. “He started describing his idea,” Mr. Martin said, “and I said ‘Wait!’ and I ran home and found a 50-page business plan I had written a few years before for a very similar business.” The two decided to become partners on it, and Jifiti is the result.

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